Monday, January 4, 2016

African Turban

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In the recent over-coffee-coloring we had a great art coach, Dino Copreros, shared with us his techniques in coloring a page. One of the tips that stayed with me was his way of starting at the bottom and making his way to the top of the page. I didn't know that when I did this page from Och Umlas' Mystery Women book, but recalling the movement it doesn seem to make sense.

This illustration by R. Jimenez had at the bottom of the page the face of the turbaned African woman. I found the face most interesting so I attacked it first with my Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. I thought if it turns out fine then I'll do the rest, if I mess it up then that's the end of it.

I actually was quite satisfied. But if it turned out otherwise Dino's tennet would prove right because then I could just work on beautifying the turban to draw people's attention away from the bottom.

The photo above shows my choices for the black woman's skin tone. Yes, that's green. I thought it would be interesting to mix that in for depth and drama.

In the shadows of the face I was quite generous with the Marine Green and Light Umber, while for the parts where the light touched it I went with the brighter tones like Mineral Orange and Goldenrod. Bronze helped keep the entire look together.

When I was happy with the face, its highlights and dark tones, the rest seemed easier to do. I thought I'd just let myself loose with the neons and brights.

Och seemed quite happy with the end result, and am always happiest when the artist and author end up appreciating how I worked on their obras. My gosh, who wouldn't be? 🤗